The Sunday before the holiday, my parents made a really fun St. Patrick's themed Sunday dinner, including green veggies with dip, a rainbow fruit plate, Irish soda bread, and beef stew served over mashed potatoes with a pastry shamrock to put on top ☘
On St. Patrick's Day, we had Lucky Charms for breakfast. These are supposed to be a special kind that turn your milk green.
We celebrated Oliver's adoption day, since he was adopted on St. Patrick's Day
On our travel day home, Kate and Nora got packed up and checked out early so they could make a quick trip to Disney Springs to visit Gideon's Bakehouse, which we had heard is amazing.
The interior style is very interesting blend of creepy and cute haha
They brought back some yummy cookies to share with the rest of us
Monty was very interested in the pressed penny machine at the hotel, so we ended up making one
Going through the airport
A few pictures of the Gideon's packaging before we ate the cookies - I thought the design was cool. Nora got us 4 flavors of cookie to try - an original chocolate chip, a cookies and cream, a coffee cake, and a pistachio toffee.
It was very cold and snowy when we got back to Utah - very different from the warm, sunny weather we enjoyed in Florida!
For our last day in the parks, we visited Epcot. They were having the Flower and Garden Festival there, so there were lots of fun flower and plant displays, including topiaries of many different characters. They also had festival food and merchandise booths set up around the park. I went with Mike and our kids to the early entry this time. After getting in the park, we made a bee line to the France Pavilion to get in line for the new Ratatouille ride. I did manage to take a few pictures along the way.
The entrance to the ride has a fun rat-themed fountain
The wallpaper inside the queue area - I thought it was adorable!
The little safety video
I thought it was a super fun and cute ride. Mike said he didn't get too sick on it, just a little bit.
Getting a photo with the Remy topiary
Next we went to Norway to ride the Frozen ride
This is Sam's "got caught by a troll" face. Hehe
On our way back to Future World, we stumbled across this - The Epcot Experience. It is a display about the many changes that they have planned for Epcot.
Riding Spaceship Earth
Test Track
Ev, Sam and Mike designed a vehicle, and Nora and I designed a vehicle
This is how Ev, Sam, and Mike's vehicle turned out
Nora's and mine ended up looking like a little bug
Some signs in one of the festival merchandise tents - the Orange Bird and the Bee were little mascots for the festival, and I think they are adorable
This large Fantasia inspired display was so fun, and this is where we met up with my parents and Kate. Beth and the littles came a bit later.
Mickey and Minnie
This was a special scent garden display with butterfly topiaries
The view across the water to the large planted flower display
The Canada Pavilion
Waiting to see the Canada circlevision movie - They have updated this since we last saw it. Unfortunately Martin Short is no longer in it, but the new movie was really cool.
The UK Pavilion
I LOVED the topiaries of Pooh and friends
This window display in the tea shop was so cute - a sleeping cat, and some mischievous little mice getting into everything
We saw Mary Poppins
This was part of the "tea garden"
The Bee
They also had topiaries of several characters from Peter Pan:
Tinkerbell
Hook fighting Peter
Tick Tock
The France Pavilion
Out in front they had two sets of Beauty and the Beast topiaries
Lumiere and Cogsworth
Beast and Belle
The Morocco Pavilion
They had a special Encanto-themed garden here
The Japan Pavilion
We are always on the lookout for cute little lizards
We had lunch here, at the Katsura Grill. They had a yummy selection of sushi, udon and raman
Checking out the Kawaii exhibit
We spent quite a while in the shops in the Japan Pavilion. They have so many great things
A Kirby hat for cats, lol
We bought several treats and snacks to try
There was a dragon topiary next to the torii gate
Cute Pluto, Chip and Dale topiaries at the American Pavilion
Lady and the Tramp topiaries at the Italy Pavilion
Kermit and Miss Piggy travel-themed topiaries
The Germany Pavilion
Looking through the shops
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves topiaries
Cute panda topiaries at the China Pavilion
They had these cool little sculptures of the different animals in the Chinese zodiac that were made of seeds and dried plants. Ev is very proud to be born in the year of the rat.
Mulan making an appearance on the other side of the water
Watching the China circlevision movie
Exploring the shops
Elsa and Anna topiaries at the Norway Pavilion
Visiting the little stave church museum
The current exhibit there is on the gods of Norse mythology
There is also a fun troll topiary
I love Hei Hei and Pua
Three Caballeros topiaries at the Mexico Pavilion
V and Monty got their faces painted
We headed back to the France Pavilion for our dinner reservation
We had a very delicious dinner at Chefs de France
They were able to seat us all together at a very long table!
Nora wanted to try the escargot
They made Ev a yummy GF steak meal
This goat cheese salad was so good
Dessert
After dinner, most of us were tired and headed back to the hotel. Mike, Ev, Nora and Sam decided to stay until closing and go on a few more rides.
Another picture of my favorite character topiary - Piglet and Eeyore
The ball has had new lights installed on it, and it looks amazing at night!
Mickey and Minnie with the lit-up ball
Donald, Daisy, and the nephews
The closer we got to the ball, the cooler it looked
When we got to the entrance plaza, we realized that the patterns on the ball were choreographed to music
Mike sent me these pictures - they rode Figment's imagination ride
Adorable Bambi and friends topiaries
It was a really fun way to end our time in the parks!
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